“To rob the world of a people”: an instance of colonial genocide in the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School

Abstract

This paper demonstrates, through Sagkeeng First Nation narratives, how the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School (FAIRS) is a micro-instance of genocide. An understanding is offered from the perspective of a settler colonial academic, in consideration of decolonizing principles. Using relational theory, namely Actor-Network Theory, this paper discusses how FAIRS’s practices were designed and operated to disrupt relations between Anishinaabe children and their community, and the ways children and their families negotiated and undermined these practices. Data was collected through critical narrative analysis and sociohistoric inquiry to identify and unpack themes of "language," "space/place," and "the natural environment" as identified in FAIRS Survivors’ testimonies, interviews, stories, and memoir.